ok, i have adobe premiere 6.5 and it has a problem, or maybe i'm just a n00b. any video i put on the time line plays back blank, no video no sound nothing, even after rendering or saving as real video. the thing that really bugs me and makes me think i'm just a n00b is that any music that's in the right audio format for premiere plays just fine, and any pictures (jpegs) show up just fine too. so, i'ld really like to use clips, but it's not letting me. any clue what's wrong?

What sort of video clips are they? Did you obtain them straight from a DV cam, or some other means? Premiere 6.5 is limited in the types of movie file it can handle.

i'm using avi format video files that i downloaded from the internet.
cuz i doesn't even let me open wmv.

Okay, have you tried to play these file in Windows Media Player?